wleferrand
Wannabe Aztec driver
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2015
- Messages
- 78
- Reaction score
- 6
Dear all,
I'm afraid that I need to tap into the forum's wisdom again ..
A few weeks ago some fuel was dripping from under the left engine; it turned out the fuel pump was leaking. The A&P I was working with sent back the pump to Romec and we got an overhauled RG17980J/M that he put back in the plane.
Since then I only did short, training flights at low power (below 26")
Yesterday the MEI & I went for a night XCountry and when setting up the aircraft for cruise (31" / 2400) we noticed that
- the fuel flow on the left side was pegged all the way to redline
- EGT was abnormally low (and much lower than right side)
- when we tried to lean the mixture on the left, the engine start running rough
Needless to say, we cancelled the trip and landed.
- On the landing once I reduced MP on the left side, the RPM dropped to 2000 RPM or so while the right engine was still happily at 2500 at the same MP
- After landing, the fuel gauge on the left tank was showing 1/2 full, while the right fuel gauge was still showing full (we didn't switch tanks during this short flight)
We ran the engine on the ground and the instructor, at a safe distance behind the aircraft, saw some flames when advancing / reducing the throttle.
There was no apparent sign of fuel leak. It just feel like we pushed a lot of fuel through that left engine.
I went back to talk to the A&P who changed the fuel pump but it is a small shop and both A&P who touched the aircraft just left. However, it looks like no adjustment was done on the fuel pump, it was mounted "as-is" (they don't have a test bench).
A new A&P from the same shop is going to look at the plane but he is not really sure of what to look at yet. Would anyone know an Aztec specialist (the plane is a turbo E) within reasonable distance of KSQL (San Carlos)? Alternatively, would it make sense to put the A&P in touch with a specialist located further away so that they can share thoughts over the phone (billed time, of course)?
I like the local A&P and would like to see them get up to speed on the plane but it looks like there is a little learning curve to get past by here.
Thanks!
I'm afraid that I need to tap into the forum's wisdom again ..
A few weeks ago some fuel was dripping from under the left engine; it turned out the fuel pump was leaking. The A&P I was working with sent back the pump to Romec and we got an overhauled RG17980J/M that he put back in the plane.
Since then I only did short, training flights at low power (below 26")
Yesterday the MEI & I went for a night XCountry and when setting up the aircraft for cruise (31" / 2400) we noticed that
- the fuel flow on the left side was pegged all the way to redline
- EGT was abnormally low (and much lower than right side)
- when we tried to lean the mixture on the left, the engine start running rough
Needless to say, we cancelled the trip and landed.
- On the landing once I reduced MP on the left side, the RPM dropped to 2000 RPM or so while the right engine was still happily at 2500 at the same MP
- After landing, the fuel gauge on the left tank was showing 1/2 full, while the right fuel gauge was still showing full (we didn't switch tanks during this short flight)
We ran the engine on the ground and the instructor, at a safe distance behind the aircraft, saw some flames when advancing / reducing the throttle.
There was no apparent sign of fuel leak. It just feel like we pushed a lot of fuel through that left engine.
I went back to talk to the A&P who changed the fuel pump but it is a small shop and both A&P who touched the aircraft just left. However, it looks like no adjustment was done on the fuel pump, it was mounted "as-is" (they don't have a test bench).
A new A&P from the same shop is going to look at the plane but he is not really sure of what to look at yet. Would anyone know an Aztec specialist (the plane is a turbo E) within reasonable distance of KSQL (San Carlos)? Alternatively, would it make sense to put the A&P in touch with a specialist located further away so that they can share thoughts over the phone (billed time, of course)?
I like the local A&P and would like to see them get up to speed on the plane but it looks like there is a little learning curve to get past by here.
Thanks!
